South Korean Book Recommendations

I have never downplayed the impact from my trip to Seoul. In fact, I think many people in my life would argue I need to shut the hell up about it. “We get the picture.” No, you don’t. Am I about to use Astrocartography as evidence as to why I thrive in South Korea (and Japan for that matter, but don’t forget the geopolitical impact)? Why, yes. Yes, I am. No one of sane mind and connected spiritually would discredit the impact of their Imum Coeli running squarely between Busan and Fukuoka. In laymen’s terms: if you believe in fate like the ancient Greeks, the stars foretold I would find homelike comfort between South Korea and Japan, and so it was written in the stars (as well as in the summary of these book recommendations).

If I’ve managed to keep you entertained up until this point, you’re either a fellow astrological believer, a jjajangmyeon enthusiast, or a mental health professional deciding if I require a 72-hour hold, grippy socks included. I’m not sure what brought you here, but I’d love for you to stay, kick up your feet, and enjoy any of the following books. These book recommendations are all by South Korean authors that I read after returning from Seoul last summer. Each one moved me, in drastically different ways. All made me cry. I caution that you might need a box of tissues should you decide to read any.

Of note: I’ve noticed that books by Asian authors that either dive headfirst into culture we aren’t familiar with or require translation tend to have lower GoodReads ratings. Treat Asian book reviews the way you should treat Asian restaurant reviews on Yelp or Google: a 3.5 is a 5-star rating once you factor in the Caucasian bias. Signed, a fellow Caucasian who knows better.

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se Hee

No list of book recommendations is complete without prioritizing our minds in some capacity. So of course I’m starting off with a mental health banger of a book. Hell, I personally needed to plumet to rock bottom to emerge on this path of self-discovery and inner-work. What better book to recommend than one where the author persevered on a similar journey? Mental health, depression, and anxiety are still somewhat considered taboo in Korean culture, so to see the raw vulnerability Baek Se Hee displays by transcribing all her psychiatrist appointments for the literary world is groundbreaking and awe-inspiring. If you’ve ever struggled with body dysmorphia, narcissism, or emotionally immature parents, you’ll quickly realize these topics traverse language and cultural barriers.

Baek Se Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgmental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends, performing the calmness her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can’t be normal. But if she’s so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favorite street food: the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a twelve-week period, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, this is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness. It will appeal to anyone who has ever felt alone or unjustified in their everyday despair.

GoodReads Rating: 3.32

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

If you’re deep in TikTok lore and a friend to the LGBTQ+ community, Valentina does a lot more than talk when she boldly screams “Ally!”. That’s how I felt reading this book. Am I a gay man struggling with my sexual identity and commitment issues? Not frequently enough to claim that personality. But do I have platonic relationships I struggle through? Absolutely. Do I stress when my friends excel in different areas of life while mine remain stagnant? You betcha. Am I constantly at war balancing my own dreams with the burden of familial duty? Obviously, and my book recommendations consistently reflect this. Duh.

Love in the Big City is the English-language debut of Sang Young Park, one of Korea’s most exciting young writers. A runaway bestseller, the novel hit the top five lists of all the major bookstores and went into nine printings. Award-winning for both its unique literary voice and perspective, it’s particularly resonant with young readers. It has been a phenomenon in Korea and is poised to capture a worldwide readership.

Love in the Big City is an energetic, joyful, and moving novel that depicts both the glittering nighttime world of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning-after. Young is a cynical yet fun-loving Korean student who pinballs from home to class to the beds of recent Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female best friend and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their anxieties about their love lives, families, and money with rounds of soju and ice-cold Marlboro Reds that they keep in their freezer. Yet over time, even Jaehee leaves Young to settle down, leaving him alone to care for his ailing mother and to find companionship in his relationships with a series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness, and another who might end up being the great love of his life.

A brilliantly written novel filled with powerful sensory descriptions and both humor and emotion, Love in the Big City is an exploration of millennial loneliness as well as the joys of queer life, that should appeal to readers of Sayaka Murata, Han Kang, and Cho Nam-Joo.

GoodReads Rating: 3.65

The Band by Christine Ma-Kellams

Last summer during my South Korean awakening, Jeon Jungkook had me by the goddamn throat. The Ace of K-pop and maknae of BTS released his first solo album. It includes influences of American bubblegum pop, classic Country, reggaeton, and afrobeats. I was throwing ass from here to hell and back in an all-consuming, disturbing parasocial relationship. Unfortunately, it’s one-sided and I’m still in today. But as I dug deeper into the Korean entertainment industry, I learned about its dark side of exploitation and abuse. Christine Ma-Kellams’s debut release The Band further highlights just how sinister the industry can be for idols. I tried to curate an upbeat list of book recommendations, yet somehow I found the darkness. Typical. At least JK is still golden.

Sang Duri is the eldest member and “visual” of a Korean boy band at the apex of global superstardom. But when his latest solo single accidentally leads to controversy, he’s abruptly cancelled.

To spare the band from fallout with obsessive fans and overbearing management, Duri disappears from the public eye. He hides out in the McMansion of a Chinese American woman he meets in a Los Angeles H-Mart. His rescuer is both unhappily married with children and a psychologist with a savior complex. This combination makes their potential union both seductive and incredibly problematic.

Meanwhile, Duri’s cancellation catapults not only a series of repressed memories from his music producer’s earlier years about the original girl group whose tragic disbanding preceded his current success, but also a spiral of violent interactions that culminates in an award show event with reverberations that forever change the fates of both the band members and the music industry.

In its indicting portrayal of mental health and public obsession, fandom, and cancel culture, The Band considers the many ways in which love and celebrity can devolve into something far more sinister when their demands are unmet.

Of note: I received The Band as an advanced reader copy from Sierra and my friends at Atria Publishing Group. It’s set to release April 16th, 2024.